Crushed Velvet & Roses

Dreadfully Delusional Dolls - Ms. Marwood

2022-09-01T18:38:00.007-07:00

Ms. Eunice Amelia Marwood

Loves to walk under the darkness of New Moons.
Lives off Veuve Clicquot, cavier and cigarrettes.
Collects antique surgical sets and "Do Not Disturb" signs.
Can't stand children, refers to them as "Semen Demons".
Constantly quotes Anaïs Nin.

Dreadfully Delusional Dolls - Of Time Past

2022-08-31T19:09:00.000-07:00

These lovely Ladies, Harpies and Sin Eaters were from Halloween 2021. Alas!

They all have homes but 2022's batch of Dreadful Dolls will be out soon.

Yes Bitches, I know.

2022-08-31T18:17:00.000-07:00

It's been a good fucking while since I've posted anything.

Gelli Plate Postcard

2021-02-02T12:31:00.002-08:00

Gelli Plate postcard. (Citrasolv paper is just a background I laid the postcard on for photo.)

Dresden scraps, Poe quote and fairy from Alpha Stamps

Tiny Dilapidated House

2021-02-01T09:12:00.000-08:00

Here we have a tiny 1 inch dilapidated house that was originally going to be just a well, tiny house in part of a Valentine's Day decoration. Obviously as you can see it didn't go as planned.

Since there were issues popping the window frames out, I decided to work with the mess I made out of them instead of just throwing the entire house away in frustration.

To make this house:

Glue house together.
Try your damndest to pull the window frames out of the cardboard they come on without ruining them.
Glue window frames onto the house in all the appropriate places.
Slap some paint on the house, perfection is not needed for the dilapidation look.
Glue a small piece of fabric in the round window above the front door.

Now it's just a dilapidated little house, perfect for storing memories that are best left alone...in the dark.

You can get the tiny house from Alpha Stamps HERE

Mid-Century Themed Ornaments

2020-11-29T00:05:00.000-08:00

Retro Ornaments!!

How cute are these retro ornaments? I love Mid-Century Christmas images and Alpha Stamps never disappoints!

I was lucky to get a miniature red-flocked tree from Wally World before they sold out and think the retro look goes pretty well with it! Also cleaned out 2 local Target stores for the retro-styled flocked deers, as well as the tiny ceramic deers they had. (Sorry Roswell peeps, I'm selfish that way!)

Here's the flip side of the ones in the top photo.

Both the Hello Christmas Kit and the December Kit were used for this project. The Wood Christmas Ornament Back is the perfect base for these quick and simple ornaments. There is not a whole lot of technique in making these, basically if you can cut, glue and use glitter, you're all set! Speaking of glitter, I relied a lot on Stickles, old-fashioned glitter picked up for about $3 (ok cheap clear glitter) but I really love the look of it. I used the cheap glitter on these two ornaments:

It's hard to see in the above photo but I used the clear glitter on the main image, as well as on the Snowflake Doily edges. The edges and top of each ornament is edged with Stickles Mercury Glass. It took about 3 coats to get it where I wanted it - the worse thing about Stickles is waiting for it to dry. If you layer it, it seems to go faster and hitting it with the heat gun helps as well. To make sure it's really dry make sure to let it dry overnight.

One thing I love about glitter - it can fix just about any mistake! The skiing snowman is accented with Stickles and Microbeads. Again with the Snowflake Doily I used the cheap glitter and extended it to the edges of the snowflake.

Equally hard to photograph is the Rock Candy Stickles that I used on the snowman. Really what it did was give it a bunch of texture. As you can see I was impatient and hung the ornament on the tree, and some of the red flocking got into the Stickles.

Santa Cat is one of my favorite images! The background glitter used is the Winter Snow Glitter Mix that is a custom mix of glitter, micro beads and Diamond Dust with just a tinge of light blue. Very sparkly!

More ornaments:

This ornament uses the German Fir Tree that has a flat back. Perfect to slather Stickles on, and then adding the Hello Christmas Polymer Clay Slices Mix as ornaments. Tweezers will make your life easier when adding the tiny pieces.

Supply List

Halloween Dance Party

2020-10-21T22:34:00.005-07:00

Halloween Dance Party!

I had loads of fun making the Halloween Dance Party for Alpha Stamps using the Witches Dressing Table And the Halloween Market Kits. Today I will be focusing on how to make the pumpkin head dolls. (Since I'm so obsessed with making them now!)

(The pumpkin head dolls kill me!)

The pumpkin head dolls actually happened on a whim, I just kept seeing faces on the pumpkins when I first saw them, the pumpkins are a nice size and the foam is easy to draw on (with a felt-tip pen). So of course they'd need bodies too, amiright??

Let's get started on the dolls!

To make these you really need a heavier gauge wire than what I had on hand. I used a 24 gauge wire and really, 18 or 20 would have been better choices. Not to mention being a lot easier to wrap with paper too Than the super skinny wire I used!

Take a length of wire about *this* long (you all know I don't measure things!) You'll want it longer than the desired size, and you can always cut it if it's ends up being too long. Fold the wire in half, wrap it around itself leaving a loop at the top. At the bottom of each leg loop it, then wrap leftover wire around each leg.

Take a shorter length of wire, create a loop on one side and wrap it around itself. Do the same with the other side, then wrap that entire piece around the "body".

An alternative is to make the body out of one piece of wire, which I find to be easier for me and it would look like this when finished (or close to it):

When I made these I didn't know that I'd be doing a tutorial for them so I don't have any pictures of actually putting the paper and tape onto the wire.

You'll need newspaper or thin kraft paper torn into small strips. Once they're torn, then crumble them up. My dolls were wrapped from the neck down, glue down each strip when you come to the end of it.

Once the wire is all wrapped, then you can keep wrapping to get the desired thickness. I wanted the dolls to have bellies, so I wadded up a strips and glued them down to the belly area. Once it was plump enough, and the arms and legs were done then it's time to wrap the body with masking tape. I didn't wrap the legs but you could if you wanted to.

The masking tape I had was too wide, so I just tore thinner pieces of it to use.

Here are my dolls once they were done being wrapped and glued the pumpkins onto the head loop.

Note: Make sure to wrap the arms and feet all the way down. When I made these I didn't, and it's just easier to do it all at once.

Once your doll is made, then use a felt tip marker to draw on the faces onto the pumpkins. The pumpkins are really lightweight foam and a pencil or regular pen would leave indentations. A white opaque pen was used to draw on the teeth.

To dress the boy pumpkin I wrapped seam binding around the top of the body for his shirt, and then wrapped sari silk ribbon around the bottom and legs for his pants. The bottom of the "feet" are bent so when they're painted it looks like he is wearing shoes.

The girl pumpkin's outfit is basically painting her entire body black, except for her hands, so that it looks like she's wearing a body suit. The white opaque pen was used to draw on the stripes onto her legs.

The bow on her head is made from seam binding, and her skirt are 2 flower petals from a The Dollar Tree fake flower. Pull the flower off of the stem, remove whatever is holding it together and the petals will come apart. Make a couple of tiny slits in the middle of the petals, and it should slip right onto the doll. More than likely the petals will be too long so just snip them up a bit.

When trying to take pictures of the finished piece, her shoes just faded into the background. To fix that I used Rose Gold Stickles to make them pop out a bit.

For the other supplies that I used to create the Halloween Dance Party (and the must have pumpkins!) please click:

Supply List

Little Heart Shrine

2020-09-19T22:36:00.006-07:00

Little Heart Shrine (or Mary thinks WTF)

This literally was a quick, last-minute project that I did the other night so I did not take any technique photos. I had been trying to organize my studio and found another Little Niche Heart Shrine. Sitting on my work table was the Celestial Spheres and Shrine Icons Collage Sheets and I thought "ooooh how perfect!"

Mother Mary in front of her heavens, looking down at the Earth thinking, "C'mon people...W.T.F.?"

So I sat down and went to work. Obviously making art trumps (euw that pun was not intended) organizing and cleaning, amiright?! This is why I can never get my space organized. I find something I've either forgotten about or have been looking for to finish up a project with, find it, drop everything and start messing with whatever I've excavated.

Organizing is out the door, I end up creating more mess and it looks like a family of hoarders lives in my studio space! You see how my mind is a steel trap?

As far as techniques go if you can cut, paint, and glue - then you can make this!

Quick notes on what I did:

Painted outside of shrine a dark charcoal. Then decided eh. I want the outside blue but oooh what if it was gray and the blue showed through? Out came the blue paint over the to cover up the charcoal. Applied Crackle, impatiently waited for it to get tacky, decided to speed up drying with the glue gun. After it was tacky enough I used my most favorite Golden Paint Micaceous Iron Oxide. Well that didn't work out to well, so I ended up adding another coat of Crackle. Applied a pale blue over the crackled Micaceous Iron Oxide and it obeyed my wishes.

Glued in the background image into the niche, covered the entire image in Diamond Glaze. Waited 10-15 minutes for the bubbles to appear, popped them and then let it dry overnight on a flat surface. Once it was dry, I attached the rhinestone chain around the niche opening.

The Featherly Flourishes were painted dark charcoal and crackled with a plain white paint. Copper leafing applied here and there on the flourishes once they were dry, then I just glued them down with the glue gun.

The image of Mary is glued down behind the rhinestone chain, at the very edge of the niche opening.

The Stars: I cut each link off the rhinestone chain, pick up with a tweezer, attach a tiny bit of hot glue to the bottom and glued them randomly on inside of niche.

Tiny Paper Roses with a couple of Calla Lilies and that's it, you're all done!

Supply List

Flying the Coop Part 1

2020-09-09T22:46:00.004-07:00

Alpha Stamps has a really cute Mushroom House Kit that I used to make this little tchotski from. I think it would look really cute in between a row of books, don't you?

"Flying the Coop" came through working the piece, perhaps even a Fraudian slip. (My oldest moved out on her own and my middle child is off to college at UAB.) One more left to go! OK we all know I have to take to my bed each time one ~~abandons~~ leaves me!

Mr. Alfie Ferret-Bueller:

Head Attention Seeker at Mockingbird Manor

I want to focus on how I made the house 3-D, since the kit comes with 2 separate mushroom shapes. Before I start, I am thinking I MUST have mentioned this in some of my past blog posts, but here it is anyways.

Never ever throw away the chipboard that backs the papers ordered from Alpha Stamps, it is great to have on hand for miniature and mixed media work.

To start: first assemble the niche and glue to mushroom. Using a piece of chipboard (hopefully from your Alpha Stamps

package!) eyeball the width you'll want your house and cut long strips. For this house the niche added a big enough gap to allow the house to stand on its own.

Yes, yes I know, actual measurements would be nice but I am the absolute worse at measurements. My measurement faux pas are quite legendary at Alpha Stamps (me, bowing this way and that way, waving to Leslie).

Apply glue to the edges to both mushroom top shapes. Using a strip of chipboard glue it to the top part to where it meets the stem.

Hot glue vs. Aileens: Wasn't going to burn my fingerprints off trying

to adjust with the hot glue, so Aileens it was. Yes it was a pain in the butt, but alas! I wanted to keep my fingerprints.

Do the same with the lower half on each side, and a piece on the bottom, let dry.

Once dry cover the mushroom house with paper, paint it, or however

you'd like to cover it. Note: If you are going to keep the door that is semi attached to the mushroom front, hinge tape works great to keep it attached to the mushroom base.

Part 2 on Sunday 9/13 - How to get the stone effect on the shroom abode!

Part 1 Supply List

Forever Nanny

2020-08-08T21:21:00.003-07:00

Forever your nanny, I shall be!

A little cool, a little creepy, eh?

Had a lot of fun playing with the Little Niche Shrine - Simple Heart from Alpha Stamps. Leslie asked me to put something together using the fabulous Chipboard Wings Assortment and the Simple Heart shrine so I was all ready to do something with them!

At least I thought I was. Every time I sat down to work on it I drew a blank and it got pushed off to the side. The other day I was going through one of the many piles I have everywhere in my studio and found the Articulated Skeleton - 4 Inch Tall a long with an image from the Dolls in the Attic Collage Sheet laying together. Who knows how long they had been in this pile, I'm just glad they showed up when they did. (Added bonus - the image was already cut out!)

Throw in finding that I had two pairs of the Ruby Red Slippers, and just like that everything fell together. I love it when it things just fall into place and I can get things done!

Pardon my paperclay encrusted hands.

The Simple Heart Shrine has a niche but I wanted something a little more 3D so instead of using it, I inserted one of the facades from the Matchbox Shrine Facade Set. Of course it was inserted after everything else was finished but that's the quick info.

Process:

Cover the heart with Red Suede Paper, flip it over and trace the opening. With a craft knife or really sharp scissors cut out the area you just traced. Save that piece as you'll be able to use it to line the inside of the matchbox that the facade sits atop of.

Edge the outside of the heart with black ink. My favorite stamp pad to use is the Versafine Pigment Ink Pad in black.

Paint / decoupage / distress the outside of the facade.

Glue facade to an empty matchbox, then line the matchbox with the Red Suede Paper and set aside.

Take out the skeleton pieces and sort of paint them haphazardly, you don't want a solid white. After all, real bones are not all one solid color (don't ask how I know, really.) In the picture below the legs hadn't been painted yet as the glue was still drying.

Glue the arm pieces together, after you figure out how you want the limbs positioned. I changed my mind on the positioning of the arm but thankfully the glue hadn't dried and the change was possible.

Glue head and torso to the back of your image so that both will fit in the niche space, set aside.

Once everything is dried, then hot glue the legs to the bottom of the niche so that the feet are facing forward.

No reason for this photo except that the legs in the shoes crack me up!

Accordion folded crepe paper makes the skirt, that is just glued on with hot glue. Once the legs are glued onto the niche and the skirt, then place the image with skelly onto the skirt and glue down the legs to the sides of the niche. I used Aileen's Tacky Glue for this. No need to glue the image to the skirt, the legs being glued holds everything together. Add the Patina Filigree Heart Charm and the Verdigris Bronze Diamond Filigree and set aside the niche.

The wings are painted white, and then rubber stamped with a floral / swirly print. I hit the wings with the heat gun to dry the ink after I smudged part of it (thinking it was already dry).

Glue the wings to the back of the shrine, then glue the shrine into the opening on the heart.

That's it! Your're done. Attach a hanger to the back for hanging, but I think I am going to use mine on a book cover. How will you display yours?

Supply List

Fairyland

2020-05-27T20:57:00.001-07:00

Fairyland

This month's kit at Alpha Stamps is The Secret Garden. How can you have a secret garden without fairies roaming around in it? (A miniature secret garden, of course!)

Miniature as in: it fits inside an Altoids Tin?! (Yes, a tin is also included in this kit!) There's also FOUR 6x6 cuts from the new Spring Bloom Scrapbook Paper Set included in the kit (lots of options for background greenery or florals — or garden-themed words to cover the inside or outside of your tin). However! I only used some of the Spring Bloom Scrapbook Paper Set, the inside and outside of the tin is covered with paper from the Stamperia Imagination 8x8 Paper Pad.

There are 3 new Altoids Inserts: One of them is included in the kit, (the Ivy Corner Insert) but I also used the Gazebo and Gothic Tree Fence Inserts with this project.

AND there's a new Mini Green Leaves laser-cut leaf set! Sized for an Altoids Tin (with ferns, ivy, and some swirly flourishes). Note: the new set comes with 2 sheets (2 colors of cardstock) but just the darker color sheet is in the kit.

Since it is Fairyland I didn't want the tree branches on the Gothic Tree Fence Insert to be left bare, so I used the Set of Leaves Garden Mini Punch. If you choose to do this, make sure to have tweezers (I didn't) and be prepared to say "merde!" a lot if you don't have any. Not going to lie, it was a pain in the butt but I like the way it turned out. I punched the leaves from the Spring Bloom Scrapbook Paper Set and used a felt brush pen to try and outline each leaf after they were glued down. The last thing to do is add some Stickles to the ferns, ivy and swirls.

This is a quick little project, made to brighten up someones day. We can all use some of that about now, don't you think? This will be going off to my niece Mikayla, who has been enthralled with TRUE stories of the naughty fairies who live at my house for the last 8 years!

SUPPLY LIST

Moroccan Nights

2020-04-29T19:50:00.002-07:00

Moroccan Nights

This month at Alpha Stamps the kit is called Moroccan Doorways, rich colors and lots of pattern to play with!

Leslie designed 3 new frames; they are tall enough to be used with the doors on that paper, but they also work as ATC frames. One of them is included in this kit (the Moroccan Frame), plus the front facade from the House Shaped ATC Frame Set, and one of the Onion Dome Toppers. (I chose the Moonshine Frame for Moroccan Nights shown on the right, because...the moon!)

To make the front facade, I used the Curtains Die-Cut Chipboard Set with the Valance Chipboard for the left, right and bottom part after painting them. Once the valance was glued to the curtains, the frame was glued down to the painted House ATC Frame Niche (without the Onion Dome Topper).

Hot-glue 2 tulle strips on each side of the chipboard curtains, then glue the Onion Topper on top. You'll want to hide the hot-glue mess you made gluing down the tulle.

Sort of bunch up the tulle at the top, and then hot-glue it down in place so that the top part of the curtains have a poof. I used a pair of bail making pliers to bend the Verdigris Bronze Diamond Filigree edges so they'd fit right, then topped it off with the heart charm. Trim off excess length of tulle curtains as needed.

Once that was finished, the Stained Glass Border was painted, dried and then glued on across the Onion Topper. Mercury Glass Stickles edges the topper shape as well as the border.

You're wondering how everything was connected together?

Well that's easy. Hinge tape and hot-glue!

ONLY the House Shaped ATC Frame Set uses hinge tape. The front facade is just the frame I built, and a House ATC Frame Niche. The front facade is not hinged to anything, it is glued down to the solid piece from the House Shaped ATC Frame Set. See photos:

Notes:
-Wait until you are completely finished with the House Shaped ATC Frame Set and Niche BEFORE you glue down the facade.

-Glue ribbon down for tie before gluing the facade down as well. (You will need a tie if adding any sort of panels or embellishments.)

-Don't worry about having enough of the Quatrafoil panel to completely cover the front of the House ATC Frame. It won't matter since the facade will cover most of it. (You will need more than one though to complete this project.)

You might remember the Folding Screen Fretwork Insert from my last project, The Mirror Cracked. I think it worked out pretty well as her bustier! Speaking of that project, I need to get a move on and finish up another room!

Absolutely loving the Large Moorish Bronze Window Filigree that was the perfect size to fold into the niche. Made for a great background, don't you think?

Thank you for popping by! Head on over to Alpha Stamps to see my SUPPLY LIST.

The Mirror Cracked

2020-04-08T22:38:00.002-07:00

The Mirror Cracked

One of the last times I hit the thrift store I found a little wooden dollhouse for $1.99. It's about 18" x 5" with 2 rooms, and it had to of been painted by a little 5 year old. The dollhouse was painted in bright color of hot pink, turquoise and yellow with a red interior. How very cheery...

We all know those colors would never fly with me so I started thinking about how this house would fit in better here at Mockingbird Manor.

The dollhouse sat on my work table for a couple of months, until I finally figured out I wanted a dilapidated house. The type that makes one wonder if anyone lives in it or not? Perhaps there were things in it that at one time, quite grand, but now only a shadow of its former beauty. One might even think Miss Havisham would be seen walking by a window in her faded, worn wedding dress.

As we're having to do things differently at this crazy time in our world, I decided to do this project a differently as well. Instead of showing a complete finished project, I'm going to just show a part of it, as it's finished. Once everything is finished then I'll show the entire piece.

Loving the Arched Triptych with Overlay from Alpha Stamps, the smallest one (2x3) worked perfect for my tiny little house.

I'll be jumping right into techniques from here on out.

The triptych comes in 3 sections: the base, overlay and doors. Are they doors? Not sure but that's what I'm going to call them.

To attach the doors I used Hinge Tape, which is used to repair books, but awesome to have on hand for other projects. Masking tape would also work well to attach the doors from behind.

The front of the doors are covered with paper scraps that I had leftover from some old dictionary pages, that were painted with a Gelli Plate.

The base of the triptych is covered with a scrap from a vintage dictionary, and the broken "iron work" behind the overlay is cut from the Folding Screen Fretwork Insert. To make it look like a mirror was broken, I cut out jagged pieces from a faux mirror sheet and glued those behind the fretwork, then glued the overlay to the base.

The back wall was a lot easier than I thought it would be! The first layer of the crumbling wall is a piece of paper again from the Gelli Plate. Second layer is the Small Stone Wall Texture Sheet painted, and then glued down over the base paper. The third layer is just a torn piece of paper from the Time Is An Illusion Rust Effect sheet. To make the "crumbling stones" I used Golden Fiber Paste. The easiest way I found to do that was to use an old skinny paintbrush and drop a blob of the fiber paste onto the texture sheet. Smooth it around and pull up on it in different places with the paintbrush.

Once that was finished, I took a baby wipe and wipe off enough of the paste here and there so that the paint from the texture sheet shows through.

Lastly is the floor. The Wood Flooring Scrapbook Paper is double sided, light wood on one side and dark wood on the other. The dark wood was cut to size for the entire floor, then I tore another piece from the paper, gluing so the lighter side was on top.

To age the paper I used emory boards with different grits. A medium grit was used first, then I went over it again with a fine grit. I'll more than likely go back over the flooring with a sepia ink rubbed over the white spots to darken them up a bit. Tip: Get your emory boards at Sally's, way more economical than buying something like a Tim Holtz sanding block.

That's the first room! But exactly what kind of room is it? Is it completely finished, or will it remain the way it is? You'll just have to keep following to find out, or follow my Instagram page. ;)

Supply List

More Photos:

Spring Tea!

2020-03-18T22:10:00.003-07:00

Shopping amongst the lunatics at the grocery store, reading crazy Coronavirus conspiracy theories on FB, and all of the madness that's come with the pandemic left me -

Needing to jump into my own reality, in my pigpen garage studio and get creating!

And so I did.

With the Spring Equinox fast approaching, I felt like making something to celebrate that instead of obsessing on and overthinking the Coronavirus. (BTW have you washed your hands today?!)

The current offering from Alpha Stamps is Mr. Bunny's Egg House Kit. It is sooooo cute! Retro bunnies, chicks abound and it just so happened that I had the mini Cinderella Coach sitting around. Already put together just begging to be finished.

I had to build the "table" inside of the coach and it was easy peasy. Using chipboard, I cut out 2 rectangle shaped pieces like so:

Sorry, don't have the exact measurements, you just kind of eyeball it and go from there. (AFTER you wash your hands!) Once they were the right size I covered one side of each rectangle with paper from the Cottontail 6x6 Paper Pad.

Initially I had created a seat on each side of the carriage, but when I decided to put in my teenie weenie sized doll I had to pull out one of the benches.

Don't try to make it perfect, unless you want to try and make yourself go insane.

See? She really is a teenie weenie vintage porcelain doll.

Benches: Glue the thinner cardboard down first, I suggest using a thick white glue that has a fast grab. You could, of course use hot glue, which I tried at first. I'm only have 9 fingerprints now thanks to that! Once that is glued in, then glue the larger piece on top of that.

Notes:

I wanted a shabby carriage, so if I bumped up the paint a bit or if the chipboard got a bit wavy from being painted, I didn't worry about it.

If you find that the door doesn't fit the way it did before you painted it (and somehow grew in length...?!) just trim the extra length off of the top of door.

The large brass flower on the carriage door is a misfit vintage earring. The screw-back made a perfect hanger.

Gold leafing applied here and there alludes to a once grande carriage.

Thank you for checking out the Spring Tea Carriage! Please be well and follow the Coronavirus CDC Guidelines .

Now go wash your hands ;)

Supply List

Mad Tea Party Theatre

2020-03-04T21:42:00.000-08:00

I love tea, and it's always tea time around here when of course, I am not drinking coffee.

When the February My Retro Valentine Kit - February 2020 arrived from Alpha Stamps, cute as the retro-themed collage sheets were I just couldn't get past seeing tea themes. (Which of course led straight to Alice because...tea!)

Since it is a Mad Tea Party theme, in my reality nothing really has to make much sense. (Not that it does most days anyways...) As long as I liked it well then it's perfect!

I had remembered that awhile a go, I had started working on a Punch & Judy Theatre that had an Arch Top Theatre Facade on top of it, so I dug it out. Thankfully the palette I used worked out pretty well with the Retro Valentine Kit.

Didn't care for the paper on the floor of theatre, so I tore some "flooring" from the China Cabinet House Accessories Collage Sheet and the China Cabinet House Wallpapers Collage Sheet. Inked the edges and glued them down, but leaving the middle of the existing paper to show.

The "tablecloth" is 3 halfs of 2 tiny pink doilies, then one of the White Tiny Lace Borders used as "lace" on top of the doilies.

The hardest thing about the entire project was stacking the cakes and getting them to teeter the right way. Didn't use hot glue since I wasn't sure how each piece would be placed, but used a thick white glue. That way it held just a bit but allowed me to move the cakes around to where I wanted them.

That's about it!

You can find the entire supply list here.

It's All About The Christmas Kittens

2019-12-06T22:51:00.000-08:00

I have always loved The Three Little Kittens and when Alpha Stamps came out with the Wooden Mitten I knew exactly what theme to go with. Add the Matchbox Ticket Journal (now in tan!) and you can make a quick storybook ornament. These are so cute, they're perfect for hanging off of your tree, or as gift tags or as a layering element (as with the pennant).

3 Little Kittens Ornament Supply List

Kitten Mitten Pennant & Ornament

Yes, another pennant!

Only this time it is a single pennant and not a banner. These are perfect for hanging off your Christmas tree, on a door handle, or on a wreath.

With this pennant I enhanced the kitten's outfit with Christmas Red and Mercury Glass Stickles, covered each pennant with paper, Dresden borders, ribbons, lace, and paper roses. That's it, a perfect way to work away a rainy afternoon!"

The Kitten's Mitten Ornament was lickety split to make, and the results are so sweet. Again with the vintage kitten and snowman! I really love the styles of illustration from the 50s and 60s, sometimes I think it reminds me of being at my grandmother's house when I was small and it's just a comfort thing (aside from being really cute!)

Thinking that I'll soon be making Valentine ornaments with the Wood Christmas Ornament!
Kitten Mitten Pennant & Ornament Supply List

Home for The Holidays Banner

2019-11-23T21:42:00.001-08:00

Home For The Holidays Banner

Are you in the Xmas spirit yet?

Xmas, Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza, Islam, etc, or dancing naked under the full moon - are you feelin it yet? Kind of hard not to when Wally World is bringing out the holiday decorations before Halloween was even over. Not to mention those who put their Xmas decorations up earlier and earlier...what is wrong with people?

Marilyn Manson imitating me from a couple of weeks ago...

Anyways I am finally in the mood for Xmas! Yay! I LOVE Mid-Century Christmas decorations, especially Santa, those demented knee hugger elves and also the little pixies, tiny wooden ornaments, the flocked deers, and of course Shiney Brite. The November Kit from Alpha Stamps which came with super cute retro collage sheets was right up my alley. Once again I felt like making a banner since I can't seem to find the one I made a couple of years ago.

This banner has just 3 pennants, and the middle one I decided to make 3D with the cute little Christmas Baking Treat Box that comes in the November Kit. The kit name got me thinking about making treats, being at home when it's cold outside, cookies baking, candies all around and everything else that's good to eat (that blows your arse up by 12" just by looking at it) is how I came up with the "Home for The Holidays" theme.

How cute are those teenie-weenie cookie cutters? I ended up

having to fill them in with Christmas Red Stickles since they just faded into the background when I tried to photograph the banner. If I had the chance to redo this banner, (I won't ... but if I did) I would use a different paper for the house because of how hard it was to photograph. I think a predominately red background might have been a better choice. However! It is really cute up close and personal. Did I mention that I really love Mid-Century snowmen too?

Don't look too closely at the banner or you'll see the wonkiness that abounds with this project!

If you look at the bottom right corner of this photo on the left, you can see that the "log" in front of the house is really a cake!

Tinsel dresses up anything and makes it look just that much better and finished. I lined the roof of the house with it and when I couldn't find the red seam binding (that I know is here somewhere...) to hang the banner with, the tinsel worked pretty well for that.

The miniature cakes, trees, and Santa cabs were just the right size to dress the banner up a bit more.

Most everything that I used this time came from Alpha Stamps, and you can find my supply list here.

Have You Recognized Your Madness?

2019-11-03T10:51:00.001-08:00

Francesca Woodman Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island, 1976 Gelatin silver print.

"Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life...If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature...Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life.”

― C.G. Jung, The Red Book: A Reader's Edition

Trick or Treat Banner

2019-10-23T21:07:00.001-07:00

Trick or Treat Banner

Yaahhhsss it is still my favorite month (except for the first half being so bloody damn hot) and I am still playing around with the Twilight Kit from Alpha Stamps!

Leslie sent me Large and Small Pennants and I absolutely love that they're black. Saves me the time of having to paint or paper the backs and the black just gives it a nice finish.

After playing around with everything I decided to stack the pennants, and then put the Small Chunky Coffins on the top. So here was my problem..there wasn't enough of the Twilight 8x8 Paper to cover both sizes of pennants. Deciding to cover the large pennants, I used what I had with the Twilight papers, placing the paper just under the punched holes, then covered the top strip with the leftover scraps. It was only a 1/2" or so space, and I liked mismatching the patterns.

Using the fabulous Coffin Skeletons Collage Sheet, I covered the Small Chunky Coffins with images from that sheet as well as using the Skeletons Out of the Closet Collage Sheet. Once the pennants and coffins were papered, I edged them with black ink. Next came the layering, which took all of maybe 10 minutes! The pennants are glued together, but the coffins are attached with 2 Glue Dots, just so they'd stand up a bit from the pennant.

Note on the Glue Dots - the coffins won't stay on with just the Glue Dots. I put a bit of hot glue on top of the dot then put on the smaller pennant.

Oh wait - the small pennants. I stamped kraft paper with the Tim Holtz Seasonal Catalogs 1 stamp and covered the small pennants with the same image. (Don't be surprised when you see my Xmas banner with the other half of that set covering the small pennants again.) The Tim Holtz Rosette Die was used to make the rosettes, cut from the Spectrum Ginger Snap Dots & Stripes Scrapbook Paper.

While looking through (excavating) some of my supplies I found some of the plastic skeletons I have hoarded from Alpha Stamps. I remembered something that Design Team Member Lora Mahaffey did way back when she was a Guest Designer for Alpha Stamps using the skeletons. Lora had created a tutorial for articulating the skeletons so I looked it up and then took off with the skeletons. (By the way, it is so easy it's ridiculous, and who doesn't like snapping bones off?) Had a lot of fun cackling when I figured out how each skeleton would be posed, I think my favorite is the one hanging upside down!

Final tip: When stringing the pennants, you'll need to place them really close together so that the skeletons hang straighter. Otherwise they end up hanging too far to the side. Well, that's about it for now! Now I'm off to get busy on the Xmas banner...

Supply List

The Odour of Sanctity-When The Dead Smell Divine

2019-10-23T11:50:00.004-07:00

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux's Funeral

Article at The Order of the Good Death

The Odour of Sanctity: When The Dead Smell Divine

Tombstone Ticket Book

2019-10-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

This month Alpha Stamp's Twilight Kit is so cute, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I thought that the new Mini Halloween Banners Collage Sheet was just screaming my name to chop it up and have fun with it. This collage sheet has a zillion options for making a tiny banner (just add a bit of string or baker's twine)... the pennants are about 1" tall. It's a sea of orange but the Twilight papers (also in the kit with this sheet) are pretty much all cream, orange & black.

And it has lots of words:

- HOCUS POCUS
- CANDY
- MAGIC
- TRICK
- TREAT
- SPELLS
- POISON
- GHOST
- SCARY
- SPOOKY
- BEWARE

The first project I made is this cute little Tombstone Ticket Book to add to my growing Halloween hoard of decor. The Etched Wood Gravestone comes naked so I painted it with white gesso, then while it was still wet I added a little bit of black gesso and just haphazardly mixed it around. Did the same to the Day of the Dead wood skull.

Between the 2 gravestones is the little Matchbox Ticket Journal that has the tiny images from the Mini Halloween Banners Collage Sheet on both sides.

This side has my favorite Halloween jingle that I typed out (on a

1960s Smith Corona typewriter!) Edged the bottom with the Thin Looped Dresden Border, and edged the top of the flip side with the Thin Fleur Dresden Border. That's about it, a quick little book to make and amuse yourself with (AND to add to your Halloween hoard!)

Supply List

Happy Halloween!

2019-09-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

Tombstones, spider webs, pumpkins, bats, creepy trees, witches and black cats. Yaaaayyyyyyyy it's Halloween time! (Or every day at my house because every day is Halloween here.)

I was beyond delighted to get the Alpha Stamps Happy Halloween Kit and a trio of large chipboard tombstones to play with.

Check out the bright colors popping off the new collage sheets and also the scrapbook paper. Loooove it!

While black is my happy color, sometimes it's nice not to just use plain black or traditional, toned down colors for Halloween.

What do you think of the Tiny Little House #2 on the center tombstone? I think it's sort of like a scene within a scene, and the eyeball cabochon fits perfectly! You just know that the little witch in the house is singing "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!" Amiright?? The cackling pumpkins and mischievous cat crack me up every time I look at the background paper. (Yes, as a matter of fact I am easily amused these days.)

Originally I was going to connect each tombstone to the other with black seam binding, but then ended up gluing parts of the branches of the large tree to attach one to the other. Lesson learned: don't hole punch your project unless you're absolutely sure it needs to be. Also learned to pay attention to how fast the flow of my new glue gun is compared to the old decrepit one. Amazing how much damage a very small blob of hot glue can do to your skin!

The fences were painted black, then I used Finetec watercolors in gold, copper and a patina shade) to make them look old and rusty.

The small creepy tree was also painted black and again I used an assortment of Finetec watercolors to liven up the dead tree. For the large background tree all I did was dry brush it haphazardly with the black paint. Hot-glued ceramic bat beads to the tree and tah-dah! Creepy trees were finished. There's a lot going on with the smaller creepy tree, (actually with the entire project but let's pretend it's just this one side) and if you look carefully you'll see a tiny little ceramic owl bead on the branch!

These guys are getting ready to pahhrrtay! I'm sure that uncle Igor in the bottom left window is whipping up something delicious (and probably poisonous) to drink, and check out the welcoming committee at the front door. They're calling out..."Yooooo hoooo! C'mon in y'all! The poison uh, we mean punch is really good tonight. Really it is!)

I didn't worry too much about any mistakes that may have been made on the bottom of each tombstone, the sheet moss covered everything up pretty good and made one scene flow into another.

Supply List

Flora's Court of Quotes

2019-08-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

I love the little index tabbed book from Alpha Stamps Fruit Paradise Kit, and had a good time putting it together while watching British murder mysteries. Art and murder somehow kind of goes together sometimes (at least in my reality it does…)

It was a bit tedious with basic cutting and pasting, but the fun part was using the Time Is An Illusion Collection Pack with my new Finetec Watercolors that are full of mica and amazing!

The paper pack has a lot of turquoise and rust shades, with gold, blue and mauve accents and I used the watercolors to enhance the colors (and on some of the images but couldn’t catch it on camera). Sounds like a weird mashup but it’s all works well together, and I think the Time Is An Illusion collection is my new favorite paper to use!

Another product I enjoy working with is the ATC Ticket Journal. It was covered in paper from the Time Is An Illusion pad, with images from The Court of Flora Collage Sheet. Then I added quotes about flowers and perfume, two of my favorite things as well as using the Finetec watercolors all over the paper in complementing colors.

The only thing I’d consider a technique is snipping the Stitched Leaf Ribbon and putting it around the image of the Narcissus without tweezers. (What a pain in the arse that was!) Seems like the harder I tried, the more my hands shook. Had no recourse except to bring out the wine. The more I drank, the easier it became to place the ribbon!

Also, I fussy cut the tiny little flowers on the cover paper, but without completely cutting them out of the background paper. Then after lifting them up, I put the image so that part of it would go right underneath the flowers.

Here are the rest of the pages from the book:

Supply List

I have an upcoming project that I’ll be using Time Is An Illusion with, bringing family skeletons out of the closet, so stay tuned!

Alice in Wonderland Junk Journal

2019-05-29T21:57:00.000-07:00

There are always two things that you can always count on finding at Alpha Stamps - Halloween and Alice in Wonderland!

Leslie asked me to create a junk journal and I didn't have to think twice about it - I love making them. If you don't know what a junk journal is - it's basically junk you put into a journal. There are no rules, no right or wrong way to make them. If you can cut and glue then you can make a junk journal!

This journal is much neater than what I normally come up with, but I love the way it came out all the same. Normally I like to use a lot of vintage text pages, old dictionary pages, postcards, receipts and assorted vintage ephemera. I will draw over the text pages, but if I want to write on them I will use a light coating of gesso on the page. The old pages are also pretty cool to collage on, or before I sew them into a signature painting over them on a Gelli Plate. Once the signatures are finished, then I'll glue the signatures into a vintage or antique book cover.

Onto Alice!

I always have Alice in Wonderland collage sheets around and thought it would be a good theme to go with. Aside from always having Alice hanging around, I have fallen down the rabbit hole on more than one occasion so the story and characters are near and dear to me. AND!! This super cute AIW fabric just landed at my doorstep a few days before Leslie asked me to make the junk journal! The line is by Cotton + Steel and called "Wonderland" if you're interested. This main pattern on the cover can be hard to find but it's out there, try the usual suspects: Etsy, Ebay, Google search.

This is the inside cover above, and the right page opens up with the cool AIW background paper and a few characters. I love the color palette from the Stamperia Alice 12x12 Paper Pad, it just seemed to perfect with the faux aged paper from the Ledger journal.

About that Ledger - no matter what you do with it the actual journal is awesome! The paper is aged nicely and it has a nice weight. The paper didn't get all krinkly either when I was gluing down larger pieces of paper on top of the pages either.

The Red Roses Dresden Scraps is one of my favorites, who doesn't love roses? At the time of having to have photos and this blog post done, I didn't have time to add tiny Alice in Wonderland book pictures to the bottom of each page, like the snarky rabbit here. Why am I wanting to do that? Because I love the old illustrations, some of the expressions on the characters and sometimes just seeing them makes me smile. So I hope they bring a smile to whoever is the recipient of this junk journal !

The person I am making this for loves tea, sending out postcards and is a prolific reader so I tried to combine all 3 in the junk journal.

This is the Tall Tag Folder that opens up to show 2 bookmarks (tags). One was papered and the other one has fabric on it. I have a new sewing machine that can sew through fur and leather so I figured it could sew through manila card stock as well!

The postcards from the Stamperia Alice pad are too flimsy to use on their own, so they're backed with a really heavy weight card stock from the Vintage Remnants line. Light colored paper from the pad were chosen so that the writing would be legible. The paper pad is sold out, but there are still some single sheets available here.

Every once in a while I covered a journal page with assorted scrapbook paper. Photos, museum receipts, journal entries or even postage could be put on the page. These Vintage Metal Binder Clips arrived at Alpha Stamps too late for me to receive and use (Alpha Stamps is in the Bay Area and I live on the very strange planet of Georgia) but would have been perfect to use to clip a book of post card stamps to the page.

How cute is this page? The 3 Inch Simple Pocket is the perfect size for tucking in a bag of tea. The map and image of Humpty Dumpty and Alice were sewn onto a piece of paper I had laying around, then the pocket was just glued down.

Cutting and gluing...it doesn't get any easier than this! (Sewing too if you're sew inclined. Pun intended. heh.)

Below are a few more random pages that were done.

This page is not finished yet, or it may just get left that way.

Tea time!

The 3 Inch Square Folder is another piece that works well for tea bags. (See photo below...for the life of me I can not get 2 photos to be on the same line with Blogger.) Something I'll have to look up on Google!

If you decide to cover your junk journal with fabric, be sure to remove the paper off of the front.

Initially I had glued the fabric to the cover, and watched it start to lump and bump up almost immediately. So I pulled the fabric off and some of the cover came off with it. A craft knife or sharp pair of scissors will help you get the rest of the cover off.

The fabric couldn't be reused because it kept the lumpety bumpety look. There was a good spot that ended up being used for the bookmark.

The floral fabric went onto the back of the bookmark.

Remember - there is no right or wrong way to make a junk journal except to have fun making it!

Supply List

A Doll for My Little Doll

2019-05-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

This is doll I made for my little doll ♥️Hadley ♥️ (btw *I* happen to be her most favorite auntie ever!)

Definitely will remove the pin in the skirt before I give the doll to her. I make dolls without a pattern, so no two are ever the same, and they are perfectly imperfect. Currently I am obsessed with making #anthropomorphic dolls, and have also discovered #libertyoflondon fabrics. Such black magic that fabric is! It must be magic because it is sooooo fabulous to work with!

Being that the fabric is (understandably) on the more expensive side since it is #tanalawn, I’ll be making arms and legs out of scraps instead of buying yardage. (Impatiently waiting for an order from England...waiting...waiting!) Here's a doll I've started with very skinny arms and legs made out of the Liberty fabric.